It was quite a day at Cerritos College for the Moore League athletes competing in the CIF-SS Division Finals, with Poly’s girls’ team winning their third championship in a row, the boys’ Trackrabbits team coming in second, and great performances from Millikan, Wilson, Jordan and Lakewood athletes as well.

The Poly girls continued to make history, winning a third straight CIF title, their seventh of the last ten years.  In 18 of the last 19 years, the Poly girls’ team has been either first place, or second in CIF-SS.  “We’ve been blessed,” said Poly girls’ coach Crystal Irving, whose team has their eyes fixed beyond the section meet.  “This is almost like a bonus,” she explained.  “Our big thing is always to stay healthy, because our main goal is state.”

Well they put on quite a show in the bonus round, scoring 105.5 points, just the eighth time in meet history a Division 1 girls’ team has gone over the century mark—with seven of those times also coming form Poly (the Wilson Bruins were the other, in 2005).  The margin of victory (La Sierra was in second with 38 points) was the largest the girls’ team has ever had.  And remember that the vast majority of the team is coming back next season, too.

Millikan had a great day on the girls’ side as well, placing fourth among the 37 teams competing with a score of 32.  All 32 of those points came from either Ashley Smith (who put up 24 points with second-place finishes in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles, the 200-meter dash, and the high jump) or Paisley Pettway (who scored 8 with a second-place finish in the 800-meter). 

Smith also broke the school record in a wind-aided 200-meter, with a time of 23.55, giving her the school record in every event except the throws, the long distance runs, and the 100-meter.  After her 200-meter, she and Pettway had Millikan in second place, which she was excited about.  “It’s really cool, because that means Paisley and I are dominating and doing what we’re supposed to be doing,” she said.

Wilson placed sixth with a team total of 29, with Anna Hernandez, Imani Pearson, Christina Smith, and Alycia Presley finishing third in the 4X400 relay, Fabrina Espinoza winning the long jump with a 19-foot jump, and Espinoza placing third in the triple jump as the highlights.

Jordan and Lakewood got on the girls’ leaderboard with two and one points respectively, Jordan’s coming from freshman La Troya Franklin’s seventh-place finish in the 200-meter, and Lakewood’s from Larisha Fields’ eighth-best discus throw.

The team performance from Poly, though, was extraordinary even for a team that’s had a run of recent success.  In the 16 events (boys and girls) that Poly entered, the lowest top placement they notched was fourth—and that was only in two events.  In the other 14 they had a competitor at third or higher, including six wins: the boys’ 4X100, Melia Cox’s 100-meter hurdles, which saw her edge Millikan’s Smith by .09 seconds, the girls’ and boys’ 4X400, and Tara Richmond’s triple jump (Cox took second) and high jump.

As a team, the Poly boys finished second to Vista Murrieta (Nike’s no. 1 team in the nation), falling 73.50 to 57.  Kyle Byrdsong, Kameron Jackson, Kameron White, and Kaelin Clay took the 4X100 and the Rabbits won a thrilling 4X400 to close the day’s action.  Poly and Roosevelt were neck and neck, each holding the lead twice—Clay managed to fight off the Roosevelt runner as they came over the cones, barely holding the inside track.  Shaq Howard came from behind on the anchor leg to get a chest in front for a come-from-behind win by .12 seconds that had the whole crowd on its feet.  “I knew I could catch [the Roosevelt runner] in the straightaway,” he said, “so I just had to not panic and use up my energy.”  Aaron Harris and Chris Hall ran the other two legs.

The only non-Poly boys’ competitor from Long Beach was Kody Robison, who took second in the shot-put for Millikan with a throw of 54’11.5″.

Congrats to all who competed in a fun day of track and field action—CIF Masters are next weekend, and later this week we’ll post a list of who will be competing.  You can click here for a list of full results from the Divisional Finals.

Click here for our video highlight of the meet, including the CIF plaque presentation, and click here for a small photo gallery.